The purpose of this thesis is to examine how power structures concerning gender and sexuality emerge through the use of language in the Swedish reality show Paradise Hotel. Of particular interest is the representation of heterosexual relations in the show. Because of its interest in the relationship between power, gender and sexuality, the thesis is based on theories from gender and discourse studies. The specific theories referred to are Michel Foucault’s understanding of power, stereotypes according to Stuart Hall, Yvonne Hirdman’s gender system and contract theory, Judith Butler’s heterosexual matrix and R.W. Connell’s theory of hegemonic masculinity. The empirical data consists of eight episodes of Paradise Hotel from 2014, which has been transcribed and analysed through the use of Norman Furlough’s critical discourse analysis (CDA). The results showed that Paradise Hotel portrays the male and female participants as fundamentally different and therefore they are allowed to behave in different ways. Among other things, it appeared that men have a high sex drive and they expect to get this need satisfied. The women on the other hand are discredited if they have sex with many partners. As a part of the concept of Paradise Hotel is to share rooms with a partner of the opposite sex there are certain expectations of intimacy. The male participants exercise power by claiming their partners as possessions. Neither do they respect the female boundaries regarding their bodies and sexuality. The women also participate in maintaining the patriarchal order in the show. However, some of the female participants oppose to a norm saying women should be sexually passive. For competition purposes they use their bodies and cunning in order to influence the men. Notably, while some of the discourses that emerged in the analysis reflect social power structures, others are reserved to Paradise Hotel since there are rules that only apply to the show.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:umu-101710 |
| Date | January 2015 |
| Creators | Nygren, Sirinard, Persson, Jenny |
| Publisher | Umeå universitet, Institutionen för kultur- och medievetenskaper, Umeå universitet, Institutionen för kultur- och medievetenskaper |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | Swedish |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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